Thursday, 29 July 2010

INTERVIEW: Lone's Magic Wire

Matt Cutler’s debut album as Lone introduced him to the record buying public in fine style, documenting the sound of a surf infused summer on a fantasy isle; and the Lemurian album was the first insight a lot of people got into his world of choppy synths and heated drum patterns. His sophomore effort, Ecastacy & Friends was snapped up by Actress for his Werk Disc’s imprint, an act that proved Cutler’s super stylistic productions had legs outside of the journalist imposed confines of the ‘wonky’ boom.

Having just announced details of his new label, Magic Wire – home to a new breed of Lone productions aimed a little closer to the dancefloor, pumping constantly with classic drum machine breaks whilst swathed in his unique approach to samples and melodies on his first 10”, ‘Pineapple Crush’ b/w ‘Angel Brain’ - Sonic Router caught up with him to get the low down on where he’s at right now, what his plans are with the label and a little more besides...

Sonic Router: What’s the ethos behind the Magic Wire label? More of an outlet for you to do non hip hop stuff or…?

Lone: At the moment it's just an easy way to get as much of my music out as possible, just because I’ve got so much on the go. I'm not consciously using it as an outlet for any other style or genre, it's just that I’m well into writing more club friendly music at the moment. I'll probably put out some more hip hop stuff at some point, but for now we're gonna put out my house tracks and just kinda see where that takes us.

Have you got releases slated from other artists?

Not right now… It’s just an outlet for my new shit at the moment, but I’d love to sign a bunch of other artists further down the line. I've got loads of people in mind actually; I guess it's just a case of whether they're tied to other labels or if they actually wanna work on some shit. Definitely wanna put a Keaver & Brause record out at some point 'cause I know he's working on a bunch of stuff that would be perfect...

Who’s doing the artwork for it?

My long time friend and collaborator Andy Hemsely; he did the first couple of Lone sleeves and works under the name The Fresh Prints. I've got a strong idea of how I want things to look so it's real easy to just explain to him what I see in my head and he just comes out with stuff that's actually better. He's really busy though, so I’ve got to constantly think of new ways to bribe him into doing new shit... I think he's down for most ideas though.

The first release has your signature synth work stamped all over it, are you approaching these new tempos of tracks differently to the stuff that came out on Werk?

I guess so, but I really don't think too much into it like that. I always work as instinctively as possible, so it's a case of just being bored of working within a hip hop tempo at the moment. I've been doing hip hop beats since I was like, 16 (?) and I’ve always been into early house and techno so I’m just having loads of fun discovering loads of old records and getting totally inspired.

Playing shows has influenced me a lot recently too... I used to be all about making music for home listening, or to soundtrack certain surroundings, but spending so much time at parties has rubbed off a lot. Like, how things sound in a club, and a reaction from a crowd has certainly influenced the tempo. I think whatever my 'signature' sound is, in terms of the synths or atmosphere or whatever is something beyond my control to be honest...

Were you inspired by the reaction Ecstacy & Friends got?

I really tried to not read much about that album, 'cause when the first album came out I was pretty naive and read loads of shit which kinda messed me up; even the positive stuff was unhealthy because when I was working on that first record I wasn’t signed to any label so I had no outside opinions or influence from anyone other than friends. After that, I kinda had people’s expectations (however limited that was) in the back of my head while I was working, which made the whole process a lot harder. Obviously though, it's always nice to hear from people that they liked it or whatever, and it really does mean a lot... I just didn’t want to get too involved, if you know what I mean?

Totally. When something is so personal, to have someone shit all over it hurts. It sounds like your taking different reference points from your previous material – would you say that’s a fair point? That your style is consciously morphing into something a bit more club orientated?

Yeah definitely. My stuff's still heavily based on nostalgia. It's almost as if 'Lemurian' was inspired by sounds I was hearing from the late 70's and early 80's through movies and TV - and hip hop; 'Ecstasy & Friends' was weird pop music I was hearing when I was in my pre-teens and what I’m doing now is inspired by the first music I actively took an interest in, hardcore and house.

What else have you got coming up?

The 'Once In A While' and 'Raptured' 12" for Werk will be out real soon, and I’ve just finished the second Magic Wire release which will be an EP to hopefully come out around October…